1980 tour bus

Go Inside Willie Nelson’s Quaint, 1980s-Era Tour Bus

By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

In the Eighties, Willie Nelson  and his Family Band toured the states in a caravan of four decked-out buses. One of those custom rides, a 1983 Silver Eagle dubbed “Me and Paul,” will be featured on the first episode of Great American Country’s new show, Celebrity Motor Homes  (think Cribs on a bus), but a special preview of Nelson’s chariot is available to watch now.

Nelson curator Taylor Perkins gives the grand tour of the bus, which looks essentially as it did in the Eighties, with only a few modern upgrades. The interior was designed to mimic a Twenties saloon, and while Perkins notes such decor might seem cheesy for another group, it was the perfect fit for Nelson and Co.

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The main area, where the band would’ve hung out, boasts stained-glass windows and seats, sofas and curtains all made out of red-crushed velvet. A marquee that can display the name of the bus, or a number of other phrases or names (including “John Denver”), sits up front above the driver’s seat. The bus also features a kick-back area that comes complete with a bar stocked with the band’s house bourbon, “Ole Whiskey River,” and rolling tray for, as Perkins puts it, “the various musicians who roll their own cigarettes.” Nelson even had a private lounge added, where passengers could relax and play a couple hands of poker.

Celebrity Motor Homes premieres Wednesday, November 26th at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Great American Country. Along with Nelson’s bus, the debut episode will include a look inside the motor home of Buffalo Bills running back Fred Jackson and the Plain White T’s tour bus.

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1981 Silver Eagle Tour Bus

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Score Willie Nelson's Retro 1980s Tour Bus For $37K

If you've ever dreamed of hitting the road like a legendary hitmaker (and, uh, hit taker) now's your chance, because Willie Nelson's 1980s-era tour bus is for sale for the remarkably fair price of $37,000 from a Craigslist seller in East Texas .

The 1983 Eagle — built for the singer/songwriter himself — is in working condition, sleeps about eight, and is outfitted with unexpectedly charming decor you probably wouldn't find in any other rockstar's ride: velvety couches and curtains, carved wooden moldings, antique sconces, and stained glass windows. But hey, it was the eighties, and hey, he was probably super high.

With a little love from a Febreeze bottle, the cannibis stench will probably come right out of these benches. But think of all the crazy nights (and stories) you'd be erasing!

Check out this vintage dash. Just imagine all the venues this place has pulled up to.

Stained glass windows inside the bus?! Sure why not.

The joint-rolling station a.k.a. dining table looks quite cozy.

Joe McGauley is a senior editor at Supercompressor and wonders what the 81-year-old's current ride looks like inside.

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Big Band Bus: 1980 MCI Motorcoach

If you’re looking to get the band back together, you’ll need a bus to convert into your tour buggy; this is it! This 1980 MCI Crusader II Motorcoach is in Klamath Falls, Oregon and it would be a good one to convert into your party wagon. Touring or camping, either one is possible with this big bus.

This bus was made by Motor Coach Industries, which was owned by Greyhound from 1958 until the late-1980s when they were purchased themselves and the different companies were spun off like an aging band member’s record contract. You are 100% correct, this bus isn’t something that’s usually shown on Barn Finds . It wasn’t found in a barn and it isn’t an all-original survivor like a lot of the vehicles shown here are; but it is unusual, it’s in great shape, and it’s inexpensive. The conversion possibilities are almost endless here.

The seller mentions that this would be a great bus for a church group or an RV conversion. The rebuilt transmission has 50,000 miles on it since being rebuilt and the bus has AC, a DVD player, and two monitors. I would probably turn a section of it into a motorcycle / snowmobile hauler and make the rest of it a nice motorhome, but that’s just me.

This is a 47-passenger layout now but that can be changed, unless you’re starting a tour service or something similar. There’s even a restroom in the back so that’s a plus. Maybe you want to drive paying passengers between two popular cities twice a day, I know people who make a living doing that. You can think of some creative way to use this bus to make money!

This is the Detroit Diesel Series-92 engine, the 9.0L, 6V92, to be exact. This is a two-stroke cycle, V-block engine. It was totally rebuilt 25,000 miles ago so it’s probably good for another 500,000 before you have to worry about it again. This great bus is found  on Craigslist with an asking price of just $7,500! How would you use this bus, would you convert it to a camping-and-classic-car-or-motorcycle-hauling rig or would you keep it for passenger service and start making money with it?

it may be inexpensive to buy but ownership would be costly. tags and insurance would be an issue. not sure what you need in the way of a drivers license. still you see them on the road in private use so there must be a work around. nice find.

I only need an air brake endorsement in Alberta for mine, insurance is cheap as it is an RV due to having water and a toilet, oil changes are a bit costly though with 50 litres or so, and let’s not talk about tires

Semi tires are as cheep or cheeper than the weird sizes used on many RV’s and run 3 times as long. My brother, owns my dads tire shop, just put tires on my duramax dually, the list on a good set of wranglers was close to 200.00 each and I got 70,000 miles out of the last ones. A good semi tire is 350.00 and is good for a couple of hundred thousand. 19.5 RV tiers are at least as expensive and last no longer than pickup tires.

i would like to have the motor for a project.

I have owned many buses, you register it as an RV…..mine were….no special drivers licence, these are much cheeper to,own and operate than a large motorhome. Everything is designed for inexpensive safe operation. Semi tires and engine are easy to buy and maintain. I like the MCI’s the best, they have strong steel frames that can handle towing a heavy trailer, standard turning engines unlike the GMC’s that turn left and are mounted transversely. I do prefer a MC-5, they are 35 feet long and a little handier. These are built to strict safety standards unlike a motorhome that becomes a pile of aluminum siding and kindling in a crash.

In Missouri as long as it is titled as a Camping RV or private owner that does not haul passengers, you can tag it as a RV/Camper and you are not required to get a special Driver permit to driver it. In Missouri you can insure them or what is called special use, which means as long as it is sitting or in storage your cost are for liability only. When it is on the go you pay for full coverage. I owned a Motor coach for a few years, that is how I know.

I drive a transit bus and even the new ones are maintenance pigs that will break you You thought owning a big boat was costly ? Imagine owning a cruise ship ……

I’d insulate it, add Propane, heat, make a sealed off room at the back for a dirt bike and a street bike, divide off a portion for ski tuning and live in it year round. That is all the space I would need, The dog would like it too.

A good ole MC-9! This seems very fairly priced if it’s as good as it looks. Engine and trans rebuild was probably $20k.

These are great buses and well-maintained they will go the distance. Maintenance is not cheap, as others have pointed out. Cruise ship is an interesting way to put it. My friend who owns an older GM Fishbowl says every time the bus needs anything, it’s $700.

If you title as a motorhome, you can get around a lot of the commercial requirements but I would recommend Class B training on how to drive it properly. These do surprisingly well off-road too, getting to remote campsites.

Very Interesting find for this BF site. I learned a lot. And NO, vehicles shown here don’t always have to be covered in bird droppings and three inches of dirt to be featured.

Of course it’s a maintenance pig if you drive it 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. A trip a month might not be so bad. Change the oil one a year, maybe. Let the filter go a couple years. Incredibly over built. 2 cycle detroits were very good performers, would last a long time.

We’re on a mission from God.

Do you think they’d take a microphone in trade?

Why would you change the oil once a year, but let the filter go for a few years. Filters are cheap compared to engine rebuilds.

Nobody has mentioned “gallons per mile” fuel costs yet as part of ownership costs…

These will get better mileage than a comparable gas motor home, 8V71 in my high geared buses would do over 12 MPG

Just love to hear Detroit powered buses. A rare treat anymore.

I love that sound, too. I had a small ag tractor once that had that same sound, a 1959 John Deere 435, had a Detroit 2-53 in it. And a baby supercharger on the side. Detroits are really something. Very good for applications where they need full power all the time, like industrial equipment, light plants, cranes. Usually 4-53 or 6v-53 or 4-71or 6-71 models.

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1970 – 1980 Open Air Sight Seeing Tour Buses

These unique sightseeing coaches are in great condition, right side drive; they seat 55 passengers and really turn heads. Many possibilities, call today for more details.

These coaches are still in daily service, but can be seen by appointment. They are not at C&J Bus Repair in Bloomington MN, which is an authorized MCI, Prevost & Temsa Warranty & Service Center. We are only minutes from the Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport and the Mall of America.

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1980 Prevost RV For Sale

Model Year: 1980 | Prevost RV For Sale: Motorhome, Bus & Coach Conversions – Displayed below are the most recent 10 ads.

1980 Le Mirage 35′ in Blairsville, GA

Rare 35′, prevost lemirage, foretravel conversion, always garaged kept Detroit 6v92 diesel engine, jake brake, allison automatic, rebuilt fridge, updated flooring 10kw diesel generator,2 roof a/c’s, full bath w/shower,gas/electric, low miles on engine, plenty of […]

1980 Liberty 40FT in Kingman, AZ

1980 Prevost Liberty 40ft For Sale: 40ft 1980 Prevost Liberty. $55K Being sold from a Family Estate. Located in Kingman AZ. Owner: Charlene Holcomb. Contact: Mike O’Rourke for details: Email: [email protected] Phone/Text: 702-355-2601 Description: Clean clear […]

1980 Le Mirage in Lake Havasu City, AZ

Beautiful 1980 Prevost – all remodeled to 1996 interior/exterior. Beautiful hard wood floors. Basement air conditioner. Caterpillar C-10 engine. 90K miles. Everything runs beautifully. Stored in doors and in Lake Havasu. Message me for more […]

1980 Mirage TS-47 40FT in Trois-Rivières, QC

Prévost Mirage TS-47 Fully autonomous 40-foot motorized, sleeper 6, interior renovated in 2019, Very reliable 9.3-liter Detroit engine with 6-speed manual transmission, Drives very well (because of the Health sale). AUTOBUS industrial vehicle. brake & […]

1980 Le Mirage Conversion Project 40FT in Fort Dodge, IA

Straight Body 40 foot long was going to convert to Motor home and not doing that know new barriers. I think it might need as starter my lose need to move soon make a offer. […]

1980 40FT in Madras, OR

1980 Prevost bus VIN: Ooooooooo condition: good cylinders: 8 cylinders drive: rwd fuel: diesel odometer: 133000 paint color: custom rv type: class A size / dimensions: 40 ft long 8ft w. 12ft 2” t title status: clean transmission: automatic 1980 prevost motor coach $25.000 firm.cash only […]

1980 Le mirage Whitehall WI

Last Updated: 11/15/2018 Key RV Features: • Model Year: 1980 • Trim: Le mirage • Length: 40 Foot • Odometer: Not Listed • Engine: Detroit 8V71 Ad Information • Source: Craigslist • City/Area: Whitehall • State/Region: Wisconsin […]

1980 40FT Jacksonville FL

Last Updated: 11/15/2018 Key RV Features: • Model Year: 1980 • Trim: Not Listed • Length: 40 Foot • Odometer: 275k • Engine: 340HP V8 Ad Information • Source: Craigslist • City/Area: Jacksonville • State/Region: Florida • […]

1980 La Mirage La Grange KY

Last Updated: 11/15/2018 Key RV Features: • Model Year: 1980 • Trim: La Mirage • Length: Not Listed • Odometer: Not Listed • Engine: 8v-71 Detroit Ad Information • Source: Craigslist • City/Area: La Grange • State/Region: […]

1980 Shelton WA

Last Updated: 11/15/2018 Key RV Features: • Model Year: 1980 • Trim: Not Listed • Length: 40 FT • Odometer: 135k • Engine: Detroit V8 Ad Information • Source: Craigslist • City/Area: Shelton • State/Region: Washington […]

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Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro Tour is included in most guided tours’ itineraries. Opened in 1935, under Stalin’s regime, the metro was not only meant to solve transport problems, but also was hailed as “a people’s palace”. Every station you will see during your Moscow metro tour looks like a palace room. There are bright paintings, mosaics, stained glass, bronze statues… Our Moscow metro tour includes the most impressive stations best architects and designers worked at - Ploshchad Revolutsii, Mayakovskaya, Komsomolskaya, Kievskaya, Novoslobodskaya and some others.

What is the kremlin in russia?

The guide will not only help you navigate the metro, but will also provide you with fascinating background tales for the images you see and a history of each station.

And there some stories to be told during the Moscow metro tour! The deepest station - Park Pobedy - is 84 metres under the ground with the world longest escalator of 140 meters. Parts of the so-called Metro-2, a secret strategic system of underground tunnels, was used for its construction.

During the Second World War the metro itself became a strategic asset: it was turned into the city's biggest bomb-shelter and one of the stations even became a library. 217 children were born here in 1941-1942! The metro is the most effective means of transport in the capital.

There are almost 200 stations 196 at the moment and trains run every 90 seconds! The guide of your Moscow metro tour can explain to you how to buy tickets and find your way if you plan to get around by yourself.

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The Rick Steves guide to life

Travel mogul. Philanthropist. Legal weed champion. The real Rick Steves is so much more complex than who you see on TV.

EDMONDS, Wash. — At first glance, it is hard to tell that Rick Steves is protesting.

In the center of his hometown, America’s favorite travel host is perched on the edge of a fountain roundabout engaging in some friendly civil disobedience. As cars circle the intersection, Steves smiles and waves, looking more like an Elf on a Shelf than an angry picketer. This is his way of reminding people he wishes they’d stop driving here.

Steves’s family moved to Edmonds when he was 12, and the 68-year-old is still happy to call it home. Rather than relocate to his beloved Europe, he dreams of bringing some European sensibilities to the edge of the Puget Sound, less than 20 miles north of Seattle.

When he’s not traveling around Europe, writing about Europe or running his multimillion-dollar European tour company, the prolific TV host and author likes to squeeze in some local activism. The roundabout routine is his push to block off Edmonds’s very American Main Street for pedestrians. If you squint at it, you can see what Steves sees: This would be the perfect place for a lively town square.

“I like a lot of things about Europe, but I love the urban energy of Europe. I love the piazza,” Steves said in a wistful tone you might recognize from PBS. “We don’t have a piazza.”

Unfortunately for Steves, the voting majority of the city does not love the idea of parking their SUVs farther away to shop. So despite his Boy Scout enthusiasm, the most famous man in Edmonds must keep up the perch-and-wave. This is not his only crusade.

Spend any amount of time with Steves, and you’ll encounter a total ham who loves a zany bit. But if you ask him about serious issues such as car-free zones, he’ll bring up other causes that are dear to him: affordable housing, supporting the arts, creating senior centers for the elderly to age with dignity.

He’s anti-Trump and pro-cannabis. He does not care if that is bad for business.

The average Rick Steves fan has probably missed this side of him. On TV, they see an always-sunny history lover who makes going abroad feel approachable for the average American. That’s an incomplete picture, like thinking you know Paris because you’ve seen the Eiffel Tower on YouTube.

Meet him in Edmonds, and he’ll fill in the rest.

It may look like a lot of gallivanting, but being Rick Steves takes a lot of work.

He spends three months of the year overseas, researching, writing, recording, refining tours, updating guidebooks. If he’s not planning or producing content, he’s often doing promotional events across the United States. This year, Steves is celebrating the 40th edition of his first book, “Europe Through the Back Door.” Over the course of his career, he has built a privately held company that generates $120 million in revenue a year, published 110 books, filmed 12 seasons of “Rick Steves’ Europe” and produced more than 750 podcast episodes.

“It’s just like coordinating a three-ring circus,” Steves said.

That is: really fun, sort of exhilarating and extremely complicated. To pull this off, Steves does not observe the French 35-hour workweek. He’s a workhorse with a reputation for keeping a frenetic pace year-round.

“It’s more of an American work culture,” Amy Duncan, Steves’s communications director, told me. “He’s an unapologetic capitalist, but he is also a socialist.”

He makes enough money to fly first class, but he sits in only economy, claiming that he doesn’t mind being cramped.

“It never occurred to me that I’m suffering,” he said. “As long as I’ve got an aisle and a seat that reclines, I’m happy.”

Actually, Steves believes airlines should have only one class. It’s part of his egalitarian worldview. He’s also anti-points and anti-miles, refusing to sign up for airline loyalty programs because he believes that they bully us into complicating our lives.

Steves also enforces a self-imposed “ carbon tax ” on his tour company, which takes more than 30,000 people to Europe annually. For every customer, Steves invests $30 to atone for emissions created by their flights between the United States and Europe. Last year, that added up to $1 million donated to a portfolio of organizations, Steves said.

“I don’t need to be a slave to the quarterly profit statement. I want to be around and profitable in 10 years from now in a world that you can travel in that’s stable,” Steves said. “This is a smart investment, and it’s an ethical expense that I should pay for.”

Rick Steves will tell you he’s motivated by making money; the more he can earn, the more good he can do with it.

“Vicarious consumption, that’s one of my things,” Steves said.

After amassing a windfall from the 2001 George W. Bush tax cuts for high earners, Steves donated $1 million to support the local symphony and performing arts center. In 2005, he used retirement savings to buy a 24-unit apartment complex for the local YWCA’s use as transitional housing for women and children. He figured he’d eventually sell the complex and live on the earnings. About a decade later, he changed his mind and donated the complex valued at $4 million.

He also gave more than $4 million to help build the Edmonds Waterfront Center, a vibrant gathering place for seniors where his daughter had her wedding in 2021. And he gave another $2 million for a similar center in the nearby city of Lynnwood, which broke ground in mid-April .

“Rick puts his money where his mouth is,” said Nancy Leson, a former Seattle Times food critic who used to let Steves’s daughter babysit her son. She has appreciated his regular presence in the community, which has entailed hosting events for local politics at his house and shopping at the farmers market .

“He changed travel,” local resident Karen Howe said on her way into the Waterfront Center with a friend. She has used Steves’s guidebooks for years. “He’s introduced us to places that most of us would never think of going.”

Steves hasn’t won his piazza battle, but he has brought European touches to Edmonds. At the Rick Steves’ Europe headquarters, there’s an E.U. flag hanging from the mocha brick facade. And gargoyles that drain rainwater, just like at the Notre Dame cathedral.

“Gargoyles scare away evil spirits,” Steves points out, unable to suppress his inner tour guide.

Here Steves employs more than 100 people: editors, audio producers, tour specialists and cartographers such as Dave Hoerlein, his first employee. That’s excluding the fleet of guides and drivers he contracts across the pond to shepherd tour customers.

Inside, he bounds through a maze of cubicles, his neck craned forward, always at an eager pace. His 6-foot frame appears leaner than in previous seasons of his life, but his signature look is familiar. No, not khakis and a button-down. That’s vintage Rick. These days, he wears dark jeans and a button-down, plus a thin scarf and leather sneakers.

During a day of meetings, Steves’s fjord-blue eyes lit up at the minutia of the business. He went over new maps with Hoerlein. He and longtime co-author Cameron Hewitt addressed problems such as finding a “less glitzy” stop on the Amalfi Coast that’s not Sorrento. They discussed whether a place is worth visiting after it’s gotten too popular, and Steves indulged in some gallows humor.

“It’s going to be like holding the corpse of a loved one who just died,” he said.

His critics argue that the “Rick Steves Effect” can turn a charming village, restaurant or museum into a tourist magnet. Matthew Kepnes, the travel writer behind the blog Nomadic Matt , points to the Swiss town Zermatt, which he says Steves put on the map, and has since dealt with overtourism . You’re bound to bump into groups with Rick Steves guidebooks in Italy’s increasingly crowded Cinque Terre.

Whether Steves is actually to blame for changing a place is up for debate. There are plenty of destinations he’s covered that haven’t been inundated with swarms of Americans (see also: Gdańsk).

Steves says he assesses whether a place wants tourism, if it can handle it gracefully. If it doesn’t or can’t, he may mention it but not promote it.

He has faith — maybe too much — that his clients share his values.

“Does [my work] change the personality of a town? It can. Am I a dramatic impact on Europe? No,” he said.

“There’s a handful of places I really promote aggressively that I’ve had a serious impact on, but otherwise ... my travelers are the kind of people that take only pictures and leave only footprints. ... They’re good travelers.”

You don’t have to spend much time in Edmonds to see why Steves never considered leaving.

The city — population roughly 42,000 — sits on a majestic inlet. You can get to a major international airport in about an hour. The community is so courteous, it has an “umbrella share” program in case people forget their own on a rainy day. As Steves walks around town, he greets people by name. He lives within walking distance to both his favorite diner and a pétanque court, the French answer to Italian bocce. He plays bongos at his church on Sundays.

In 1967, Richard “Dick” Steves moved the family here because he was worried about Rick Junior.

“I was hanging out with dangerous kids and going down the wrong trail,” Steves said. Seriously.

His dad, an Army veteran, got by in the upscale suburb as a piano technician and importer. When Steves was 14, his parents dragged him on a work trip to Europe to visit piano factories; it was a radical experience that sparked his lifelong passion for travel.

Back in Edmonds, Steves started teaching piano, eventually turning his savings into trips abroad of his own — not only to Europe, but also to Turkey, Nepal, Afghanistan. He went to college nearby, earning degrees in European history and business from the University of Washington, where he played in the Husky Marching Band.

After graduating, Steves figured he could keep up his routine: give piano lessons during the school year, then travel during the summer. He started teaching travel classes in the same recital hall where his piano students performed. This was back when there was no internet and there were few guidebooks to consult for trip planning.

The classes were a hit. At 25, Steves turned his lecture materials into a 180-page book, and self-published “Europe Through the Back Door,” in 1980.

Four years later, he hosted his first European minibus tour group, serving as both bus driver and guide.

His businesses have evolved; his bus tours now take up to 28 travelers, a number Steves says is a sweet spot between making the tour more affordable yet enjoyable for customers and profitable for the company. But his mission has remained the same: to be the best resource for European travel and help Americans travel better.

“I just focus on that and I love it,” he said. “It takes my life out of balance — which is not good — but it lets me do a lot of stuff that I believe in and that’s good.”

Steves has been open about the challenges of being a travel mogul. As he built his empire, he was also raising a family. Being “married” to both took a toll. In 2010, Steves and his wife, Anne, divorced after 25 years of marriage.

Up the hill from his junior high, Rick Steves’s modest beige home offers a window into his many lives. There are family photos on the walls, from older relatives to his baby grandson, Atlas. He hosts political fundraisers on the sprawling deck. A painting of Kerala, India, nods to one of his favorite countries. (People forget that Steves did four editions of “Asia Through the Back Door.”)

Next to his grand piano, there’s a stuffed creature that Steves calls his “Silver Fox” baring its teeth and wearing novelty sunglasses with cannabis leaves on the lenses — a nod to two of his interests: taxidermy and marijuana activism.

“It’s the civil liberties. … It’s the racism. … Everything about it is wrong,” he said of keeping weed illegal.

As for the toothy fox, Steves doesn’t do typical souvenirs anymore, but he makes an exception for stuffed animals.

“The wooden shoes and the pewter Viking ships are so obvious,” he said. “I like to do something a little more organic and a little more striking, and it takes me back there — I like it.”

He’s a very good piano player. He can also play the sousaphone and the trumpet — which he did regularly during the pandemic, performing taps for his neighbors at sunset.

The coronavirus was a nightmare for the travel business, but a miracle for Steves’s love life.

After running in the same social circles for years, he and Shelley Bryan Wee, a prominent local bishop, started dating at the end of 2019. They had a lot in common. Both are progressive Lutherans. Both are divorced with adult children. But neither worked a typical 9-to-5, and one of them spent three months of the year in Europe.

Then shutdowns happened. Steves, who couldn’t remember whether he’d ever had dinner in the same place 10 nights in a row, spent 100 nights at the same table with Wee. It solidified their relationship.

“Shelley is a constant,” Steves said. He still struggles with the balancing act between work and love.

When the stars align and they’re both in Edmonds, Wee cooks, and Steves plays sous-chef. They walk Jackson, Wee’s labradoodle, creating their own version of the passeggiata, Italy’s traditional evening stroll. They play table tennis before dinner.

When the world reopened, they started traveling together. They’ve made time for a few big vacations: a trip to Morocco, where they were caught in a windstorm that blew the windows out of their car; a luxury barge cruise through Burgundy, France, “that was embarrassingly expensive,” Steves confessed, followed by a week hiking in the Swiss Alps; and another hiking trip between remote lodges on Mont Blanc.

Before their first trip, Steves edited the contents of Wee’s suitcase, because packing light is part of his philosophy.

“What do you say?” she asked. “You’re talking to Rick Steves.”

Editing by Gabe Hiatt. Additional editing by Amanda Finnegan. Design editing by Christine Ashack. Photo editing by Lauren Bulbin. Videos by Monica Rodman. Senior video producer: Nicki DeMarco. Design by Katty Huertas. Copy editing by Jamie Zega.

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Bad behavior: Entitled tourists are running amok, defacing the Colosseum , getting rowdy in Bali and messing with wild animals in national parks. Some destinations are fighting back with public awareness campaigns — or just by telling out-of-control visitors to stay away .

Safety concerns: A door blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet, leaving passengers traumatized — but without serious injuries. The ordeal led to widespread flight cancellations after the jet was grounded, and some travelers have taken steps to avoid the plane in the future. The incident has also sparked a fresh discussion about whether it’s safe to fly with a baby on your lap .

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Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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Moscow Metro Tour

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Description

Moscow metro private tours.

• 2-hour tour $87:  10 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with hotel pick-up and drop-off
• 3-hour tour $137:  20 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with Russian lunch in beautifully-decorated Metro Diner + hotel pick-up and drop off. 
• Metro pass is included in the price of both tours.

Highlight of Metro Tour

• Visit 10 must-see stations of Moscow metro on 2-hr tour and 20 Metro stations on 3-hr tour, including grand Komsomolskaya station with its distinctive Baroque décor, aristocratic Mayakovskaya station with Soviet mosaics, legendary Revolution Square station with 72 bronze sculptures and more!
• Explore Museum of Moscow Metro and learn a ton of technical and historical facts;
• Listen to the secrets about the Metro-2, a secret line supposedly used by the government and KGB;
• Experience a selection of most striking features of Moscow Metro hidden from most tourists and even locals;
• Discover the underground treasure of Russian Soviet past – from mosaics to bronzes, paintings, marble arches, stained glass and even paleontological elements;
• Learn fun stories and myths about Coffee Ring, Zodiac signs of Moscow Metro and more;
• Admire Soviet-era architecture of pre- and post- World War II perious;
• Enjoy panoramic views of Sparrow Hills from Luzhniki Metro Bridge – MetroMost, the only station of Moscow Metro located over water and the highest station above ground level;
• If lucky, catch a unique «Aquarelle Train» – a wheeled picture gallery, brightly painted with images of peony, chrysanthemums, daisies, sunflowers and each car unit is unique;
• Become an expert at navigating the legendary Moscow Metro system;
• Have fun time with a very friendly local;
• + Atmospheric Metro lunch in Moscow’s the only Metro Diner (included in a 3-hr tour)

Hotel Pick-up

Metro stations:.

Komsomolskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Prospekt Mira

Belorusskaya

Mayakovskaya

Novokuznetskaya

Revolution Square

Sparrow Hills

+ for 3-hour tour

Victory Park

Slavic Boulevard

Vystavochnaya

Dostoevskaya

Elektrozavodskaya

Partizanskaya

Museum of Moscow Metro

• Drop-off  at your hotel, Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills or any place you wish
• + Russian lunch  in Metro Diner with artistic metro-style interior for 3-hour tour

Fun facts from our Moscow Metro Tours:

From the very first days of its existence, the Moscow Metro was the object of civil defense, used as a bomb shelter, and designed as a defense for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

At a depth of 50 to 120 meters lies the second, the coded system of Metro-2 of Moscow subway, which is equipped with everything you need, from food storage to the nuclear button.

According to some sources, the total length of Metro-2 reaches over 150 kilometers.

The Museum was opened on Sportivnaya metro station on November 6, 1967. It features the most interesting models of trains and stations.

Coffee Ring

The first scheme of Moscow Metro looked like a bunch of separate lines. Listen to a myth about Joseph Stalin and the main brown line of Moscow Metro.

Zodiac Metro

According to some astrologers, each of the 12 stops of the Moscow Ring Line corresponds to a particular sign of the zodiac and divides the city into astrological sector.

Astrologers believe that being in a particular zadiac sector of Moscow for a long time, you attract certain energy and events into your life.

Paleontological finds 

Red marble walls of some of the Metro stations hide in themselves petrified inhabitants of ancient seas. Try and find some!

• Every day each car in  Moscow metro passes  more than 600 km, which is the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
• Moscow subway system is the  5th in the intensity  of use (after the subways of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai).
• The interval in the movement of trains in rush hour is  90 seconds .

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting pastime, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the walking tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

Write your review

Tour Details

Moscow metro tour: architectural styles of the subway.

Duration: 2 hours

Categories: Culture & History, Sightseeing

This metro tour of Russia’s capital and most populous city, Moscow, is your chance to get a unique insight into the beautiful and impressive architecture of the city's underground stations. Admire their marble walls and high ceilings representing Stalin's desire for glory after World War 2, and see first-hand how the interiors change with the rise of new political eras. Your guide will lead you through the complex network, which is one of the most heavily used rapid transit systems worldwide, with over two billion travelers in 2011.

Opened in 1935, Moscow’s underground system, now 190 miles (305 km) long with 185 stations, is today one the largest and most heavily used rapid transit systems in the world. On this Moscow metro tour, discover the impressive architecture of Moscow’s underground stations and learn how they reflect the Soviet era.

Getting around by metro, your local guide will take you through parts of Moscow’s infamous history. Stop at stations built during the time of the USSR (Soviet Union) that are praised as one of the most extravagant architectural projects from Stalin’s time. After World War 2, he was keen on establishing Stalinist architecture to represent his rising regime and a recognized empire. Learn how when his successor started the de-Stalinization of the former Soviet Union in 1953, the extravagancy of the architecture was toned down.

Discover how the unique character of each station reflected several different eras. While stations like Kievskaya and Slavyansky Bulvar have pompous halls and high stucco ceilings brimming with extravagant decorations, those built later, like Volzhskaya, are lightly adorned with sparse furnishings. Architect Alexey Dushkin and painter Alexander Deyneka were just two of the many artists who made these magnificent landmarks possible.

Revel in Moscow's glory days, as well as the years of scarcity, on this fascinating Moscow metro experience. Conclude your tour at one of the central stations in Moscow. If you're lucky, you may even find the secret entrance to the unconfirmed Metro-2, a parallel underground system used by the government -- a mystery which has neither been denied nor confirmed today.

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Culture Shock Rating

We have a wide range of tours designed to give you an insight into the destination you're travelling in and there is something for everybody. The culture shock ratings considers the destination visited, transport used, activities undertaken and that "Wow, I'm really not at home now!" factor. While generalisations are always tricky, a summary of our gradings is as follows…

This is the least confronting of our tour range. Transport used on the trip is either private or a very comfortable public option, the activities included are usually iconic sites and locations that are not all too confronting.

The tour can include a mix of private and public transport providing a level of comfort that is slightly below what you would experience at home. Sites visited are usually iconic sites, tours can also include market visits, visits to communities etc that provide the traveller with a fantastic insight into destination.

Expect to rough it for parts of this tour, whether it's a packed public bus where you are forced to stand, a visit to a local market, a local community, you are sure to have an experience that is very different from what you're used to at home.

The comforts of your home town and the environment you are used to are more of a rarity. Expect some challenging transport options, visits to local sites and areas that don't resemble anything at home.

You're out there in the global community! You are likely to be exposed to the elements, travel in whatever means of transport is available and basically take it as it comes, whatever comes! It can be tough.

Physical Rating

Our physical rating gives you an idea of how much huffing and puffing you can expect on the tour. While generalisations are always tricky, a summary of our gradings is as follows…

These tours have very limited physical activity. Usually climbing in and out of the transport provided, walking through sites, markets etc included in the itinerary.

These tours have a bit of physical activity but nothing that should challenge you too much. This could be climbing on and off public transport through to a walk through the destination you're travelling in, they can include walking only tours or a combination of walking and transport.

These tours involve a bit of physical activity from walking up and down hills in the destination you're travelling in or the surrounding areas. Climbing on and off local transport or riding a bike up to 30 kms along predominantly flat terrain or jumping in a kayak for a gentle paddle on flat water.

These Tours will provide you with some solid physical activity. Whether its bike riding, walking, trekking, kayaking or riding on public transport you will need to have a good level of fitness to enjoy this tour.

Be prepared for some serious physical activity. These tours are our most challenging and involve some serious walking, hiking or bike riding. Can involve step climbs by foot or pedal and some challenging public transport options in the destination you are travelling.

Luxury Rating

Some trips are like a stroll on the beach, while others have you trekking alpine passes. Some of you thrive on camping out on the savannah, while others may prefer a hot shower and a comfortable bed in a lodge. Follow the grading systems below to find the right trip for you.

To help you choose the trip that's right for you, we've broken all of our trips down into four service levels. Measuring the comfort level of the accommodation and transport. So whether you're travelling on a budget and want to save money by using public transport, or prefer upgraded accommodation and are happy to pay a little more, then we have a level for you.

This is grassroots travel at its most interesting

Authentic experiences with some of the comforts of home

For those who like to travel in comfort

All the unique experiences wrapped up with a gold ribbon

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Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, Who Helped Timothy Leary Turn On, Dies at 90

She was an enthusiastic supporter of the counterculture. And when she suggested that her brothers rent Mr. Leary a mansion, she made psychedelic history.

By Penelope Green

Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, the energetic scion of a storied wealthy family who funded Timothy Leary’s psychedelic adventures — and famously helped him find the spot to do so, at her brothers’ estate in Millbrook, N.Y. — died on April 9 at her home in Tucson, Ariz. She was 90.

The cause was a stroke, said her daughter Sophia Bowart. Ms. Hitchcock had been suffering from endometrial cancer.

Timothy Leary hadn’t yet been thrown out of Harvard for his experiments with psychedelic drugs when he met Ms. Hitchcock one weekend at the apartment of Maynard Ferguson , the jazz trumpeter and bandleader, in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

“Pretty Peggy Hitchcock was an international jet-setter,” Mr. Leary wrote in his 1983 autobiography, “Flashbacks,” “renowned as the colorful patroness of the livelier arts and confidante of jazz musicians, racecar drivers, writers, movie stars. Stylish, and with a wry sense of humor, Peggy was considered the most innovative and artistic of the Andrew Mellon family” — that is, the family of the Pittsburgh industrialist who was secretary of the Treasury under three presidents.

He and Richard Alpert, his comrade in psychedelics at Harvard — who would later split from Mr. Leary and become the guru Baba Ram Dass — were looking for someone to bankroll a summer in Mexico, where they would conduct more of the acid tests they had been doing at school. Mr. Leary described it as “a psychedelic summer camp.” Ms. Hitchcock was gung-ho.

As Mr. Leary wrote, they had found their Becky Thatcher.

Summer camp was successful; more trips were had, with only a few minor freakouts, adding more data to Mr. Leary’s studies. Back home, Mr. Leary and Ms. Hitchcock fell into an on-again, off-again love affair. (She described it to Robert Greenfield, Mr. Leary’s biographer , as “a swinging door relationship.”) Ms. Hitchcock had been dating Allen Eager, a jazz saxophonist who was also a heroin addict, Mr. Greenfield wrote, and when her mother heard that she was involved with Mr. Leary, she exclaimed: “Oh thank God! She’s going out with a Harvard professor!”

When Mr. Leary and Mr. Alpert’s careers at Harvard blew up in 1963, Ms. Hitchcock found a new home for them and their coterie. Her younger twin brothers, Billy and Tommy, had just bought property in the Hudson Valley village of Millbrook: 2,500 acres of rolling hills and woods with stables and outbuildings and two mansions. The brothers weekended in one, a place they called the Bungalow. The other, half a mile away, was a fanciful, if run-down, turreted 64-room white clapboard confection. They rented it to Mr. Leary for $1 a year, and he soon turned it into a psychedelic palace and research center.

Ms. Hitchcock spent half her time in Manhattan at her Park Avenue penthouse — about which her friend Charles Mingus wrote a song, “Peggy’s Blue Skylight” — and half at Millbrook, roaring up from the city, as Mr. Leary wrote, “in a car loaded with cases of champagne and exotic foods and drinks.”

She was not there when G. Gordon Liddy raided the place in 1966; in those days, Mr. Liddy, who a few years later would be caught up in the Watergate scandal, was working in the local prosecutor’s office, and the town was suspicious of Mr. Leary’s antics. But she was in residence in 1964, when Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters barreled up in Furthur, their psychedelic school bus — blaring rock ’n’ roll, hurling green smoke bombs and totally harshing the Millbrook crew’s more contemplative buzz.

This highly anticipated meeting of the two heads of the LSD state — the West Coast and the East Coast divisions — rendered in looping prose by Tom Wolfe in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” had been brokered by Allen Ginsberg. But Mr. Leary failed to show. The Pranksters were told that he was in the middle of a three day acid-trip upstairs and couldn’t be disturbed — he later wrote that he actually had a terrible cold and had gone to bed with a fever — so Ms. Hitchcock gave the rambunctious pilgrims a tour instead. (They were “freaks,” she told Mr. Greenfield, “but nothing unusual.”)

Mr. Kesey, Mr. Wolfe wrote, was hurt and disappointed that Mr. Leary had stood him up. So much for a meeting of the highest minds. To the openhearted Pranksters, as Mr. Wolfe put it, Millbrook was just “one big piece of uptight constipation.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Leary had fallen in love with Nena von Schlebrügge, a successful (though ambivalent) fashion model, whom he married at Millbrook. Then Ms. Hitchcock married, and divorced, Louis Scarrone, a doctor. Inevitably, the Millbrook scene disintegrated into chaos, and both women embarked on their own adventures, and away from Mr. Leary.

Ms. von Schlebrügge took off with Robert Thurman, the ex-monk and Buddhist scholar, whom she met in the kitchen of Millbrook while trying to get Mr. Leary to sign their divorce papers. (Married since 1967, the Thurmans became a kind of Buddhist power couple and the parents of the actress Uma Thurman.) And Ms. Hitchcock had begun a romance with Walter Bowart, a counterculture journalist, and moved with him to Arizona.

Mr. Bowart was a founder of The East Village Other, a newspaper, as Margalit Fox wrote in her obituary for Mr. Bowart in 2008, so far out that “it made The Village Voice look like a church circular.” Mr. Bowart had gained a bit of fame in 1966 when he testified before the Senate Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and urged the committee members to try LSD.

In Arizona, the couple set up camp in the Chiricahua Mountains, where they ran a Sufi spiritual center for about a year, after which they moved to a ranch in Tucson and married in 1970. Ms. Hitchcock bankrolled a publishing house for Mr. Bowart called Omen Press, which published books on metaphysics and spirituality. They divorced in 1980.

“She was a vibrant person, very enthusiastic,” Billy Hitchcock said of his sister. “She had a completely open mind. Generous hearted to the point where people could take advantage of her. She had a lot of pain in her life, she was unlucky in love, but you would never know it. She was a real force. Whatever she did, she threw herself into.”

Margaret Mellon Hitchcock, the third of five children, was born on June 29, 1933, in Manhattan into a family of great privilege. Her mother, Margaret (Mellon) Hitchcock, was a daughter of William Larimer Mellon, a founder of Gulf Oil. Her father, Thomas Hitchcock Jr., was a World War I fighter pilot, polo star and stockbroker.

Known as Tommy, he served as a lieutenant colonel in World War II and died when his plane crashed during a training exercise in England. Peggy was 11 at the time and her father’s favorite, Billy Hitchcock said, and his death hit her hard.

Ms. Hitchcock attended the Brearley School in Manhattan, Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., and Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

In addition to her daughter Sophia and her brother Billy, Ms. Hitchcock is survived by another daughter, Nuria Bowart; her stepsons, Wolfe and Wythe Bowart; her sister, Louise Stephaich; and three grandchildren. Her brother Tommy and a half brother, Alexander Laughlin, both died last year.

Ms. Hitchcock’s third marriage, to Larry Weisman, a lawyer, ended in divorce. Her fourth marriage, to Allan Bayer, a doctor and saxophonist, was by all accounts a happy one. Mr. Bayer died in 2007 . At her death, Ms. Hitchcock was chair of the board of directors of AUDIT USA — Americans United for Democracy, Integrity and Transparency — a nonprofit devoted to election transparency, one of many causes she supported.

In 1989, Ms. Hitchcock met the Dalai Lama in Santa Monica, Calif., and her life took another turn. She became a Buddhist and a supporter of Tibet House in Manhattan, and she opened an Arizona outpost, the Arizona Friends of Tibet, where the Dalai Lama came to teach a few times. So did her old friend Dr. Thurman.

“She was a totally marvelous person, a people artist,” Dr. Thurman said. “These social people, people of privilege like Peggy, can really bring people together — the good ones, that is. It’s a real creativity, and she was one of the best.

“We are sure she is in a heavenly place,” he added, “and expect to hear from her soon.”

Penelope Green is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Penelope Green